


All Her Boxes of Tea

by soitgoes



Series: Rigor-Mortis [2]
Category: Being Human (UK)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-23
Updated: 2012-08-22
Packaged: 2017-11-10 13:19:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/466737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soitgoes/pseuds/soitgoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So this is how we all fall down. This is how the world ends. AU. sequel to "How Things End"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> revised 6/9/2016  
> I'm gonna try to revise and update this until its finished

If there was anything Annie had a knack for it was getting stuck in her own head. She had always been good at that. Daydreamer. Head in the clouds. Just a few things people used to say about her behind her back. Back in school she had often been reprimanded by many a teacher for letting her mind wander in the middle of a lesson. Her talent for letting her mind wander got her in trouble in the past but now it was her saving grace. Outside her dim little room the world had gone to hell but Annie was miles and miles away lost in wherever, whenever, whatever her mind could come up with. Most of the time she remembered. 

Annie remembered many things. So many things. Things that had happened, things that had not happened. Memories stacked on top of memories stacked into the shape of a woman. That's all that Annie seemed to be now, just a stream of thought at least on a good day. Outside her mind days and nights passed around her like a bleak stream. But in her mind she had them back, she had them all back. George, Nina, Mitchell they were with her as long as she could keep to the confines of her mind. No Mr. Snow. No Hal showing up with the blood still caked under his fingernails. No boy with a funny accent running off into the night, blood-soaked wife beater clinging to his skin. No baby lost to her

The lock clicked. The sound pecked at her but the memory held. Today she's somewhere around 1992, second grade, her hair up in ribbons. The iron door moaned open and light cracks into her from the hallway outside. It bleeds into her, illuminating the memory of her mother's smile flashing back at her from the mirror as she puts the finishing touches on her hair. Still she held out. The door creaked open further. Her mother hums in approval. Annie was doing so well. No Mr. Snow. No blood caked fingernails. No funny accents. No baby. Then she shattered at the sound of his voice. 

"Annie," Hal called to her from the doorway.

The room was dark. No ribbons, no bright smile illuminated like a waning moon caught in a mirror, there was just the weak light from outside her room sliding across the floor, up the wall. She saw the soft, glowing line of light besides the only window in her room.  

"Hello, Annie. How are you today?"

It had been nearly a month since his last visit and Hal almost felt giddy. She had spoken last time, actual words. It had been some silly dribble about why she was there or why she couldn't just leave and fight the good fight but that part didn't really matter. What mattered was that she spoke to him.

Hal stood just outside of the threshold as if waiting for some kind of invitation or answer but he received none. The room was dark even with the light from the hallway. Hal hesitated to enter. He had been expecting something different. Perhaps not a warm welcome but he hoped she would speak again. Seven years and all she gave him was scraps. She was punishing him, he was sure of it. But he would endure. Hal was nothing if not tenacious.

In truth Annie thought very little of his presence. She just didn't feel like speaking. She didn't feel like much of anything at all lately.

"Snow tells me that he’s made you a proposition," he said pleasantly.

He stepped over the threshold and felt the weight of her push down on him immediately. Over the years the effect her presence had on him only grew. She was in every aspect of the room not just the faint figure that sat at the center. She was the furniture, the little trinkets set upon the shelf. She was the air. Even if it was her cage, the room remained Annie’s domain.

Unlike other supernatural beings ghosts had no body to serve as a containment for their consciousness. They existed as a conglomerate of different perspectives reflected around and into one another, the most powerful of which being their own. All of these perceptions helped them form some kind of physical appearance. Most times this image of themselves took the form of their former physical shape at the time of their death. They could manipulate it, at first subconsciously and then with enough practice at will. But this was all usually temporary. 

Without any kind of physical apparatus to hold them together ghosts had a tendency to spread out and fill whatever space they inhabited. They had anchors to keep them grounded on the physical plane, friends, memories, purpose. However, if they spent enough time in the mortal world they would inevitably disperse like gas let out into the open air. Once that happened it would be impossible for a ghost to ever resume its previous form. Mr. Snow had assured Hal that had it not been for Mr. Snow’s power Annie would have dispersed long ago. 

"He’s informed me that you have yet to give him an answer. He thinks that I can get one out of you."

Hal wanted to believe that as well. More than anything he wanted to believe that she’d come back to him. It would take some work surely but he kept telling himself that eventually she'd get used to the situation. She'd get over it. She'd get over Tom and Eve the way she got over her other friends. She’d stop throwing this useless tantrum and come to terms with her reality. All he needed was time but he didn't have that at that moment. There were still battles to fight, hopes to crush and he just couldn't spend his days locked in a small room trying to get a gray ghost to talk to him no matter how much he wanted to.

"Come now, Annie," Hal said moving towards her. "You and I both know that you've been itching to get out of this room."

This caught Annie’s attention. Hal watched as her image flickered ever so slightly. Slowly her crushing presence receded back into herself. After a few seconds, Annie could have even passed for solid and Hal could stop swaying on his feet. 

It was true she wanted very much to get out of that room. To do what, she wasn’t sure yet. However she knew Hal and more importantly Mr. Snow were unwilling to let her go without a leash. She glanced around the room. The walls, floor, and ceiling were concrete painted a deep green. At first the color had vexed her to no end. Annie never cared much for dark decor. She was normally a pastels and prints kind of a gal but the color suited this damned place. The color also served to cover the hundreds of symbols painted in white that ran all over the room, an ancient language she was led to believe. She couldn’t see them but she could feel them, pulsating just beneath the surface just as powerful and restrictive as the first day she had arrived.

A tremor ran through her when she felt two heavy hands on her shoulders but she didn’t move. Touching felt wrong now. She used to love it. Being able to touch someone or something made the world around her feel real. For a moment her mind strayed. 

_ Mitchell’s hand on the small of her back. The warmth of his breath as he slept besides her. _

Hal squeezed his fingers pulling her from the memory. When he touched her it made her feel like a puff of smoke. 

"Though I know that it's not just out of this room that you want," he hissed into the shell of her ear not harshly but not kindly either."You've been wanting to get out of this whole world for  _ years _ . You’re just dying to rip through the skin of this existence and find your way to the great beyond."

Annie didn't respond. He was right to some extent. It would at least be a relief to leave this world behind. It was half doomed already from what she heard. Even if it was just melting into the atmosphere turning into nothing Annie just wanted an end. She just wanted to be free. She had long since buried any hope of ever getting to the other side, of ever seeing her friends. George, Nina, Mitchell, in the end she was glad they were dead. She was glad they hadn’t been here to see her like this, to see the world fall into darkness. But at the thought of Tom and Eve she felt a pang somewhere near her middle, like a cord had been tied around her spine had been pulled. Snow was a liar. They were alive. She was sure of it. 

"You could have what you want, you know," Hal mumbled his voice a little absent.

He looped his arms around her shoulders and leaned into her. He put his cheek to her own. His skin felt feverish against her own. Hal had never been this tactile in the past. In fact he had been completely adverse to physical contact before. Not being able to stand it anymore Annie shook him off and leaned forward away from him. Hal straightened up and let his arms drop away from her. She had felt so cold in his arms that it made him shiver.

"All you have to do is ask, Annie. Just ask me for it and I will make it happen."

Annie closed her eyes and tried to go somewhere else.

Hal waited for her answer. If he could get her to acquiesce then he would have all the time in the world to get her talking, to get her back to normal. He just needed her to say yes. He stood behind  her waiting for any crumb of attention or thought she was willing to throw his way. He waited for two whole hours for Annie to just give him a word but when none came he left.

After he was gone Annie let out a sigh feeling more present than she had felt in years. She looked out the window and for the first time in a long time actually saw the darkness outside. There were a few buildings in sight although all were industrial and for the most part abandoned. There were spots of light, fires probably scattered in the darkness. She had heard Snow’s proposal and wanted nothing to do with it. She’d rather rot in here alone than become his pawn. She would never help Snow not after what he did to her family and especially after what she had seen him to do Alex.

Snow was a monster and now Hal was too. She would never give into them. She’d get out. She’d find Tom and Eve and she’d help put an end to this entire mess like should have done years ago. Then for the first time in a long time, Annie smiled. 


	2. Chapter 2

"Que sera sera," Annie sang to the baby cooing into the shallow dip over her collarbone, "what will be will be."

 

Annie couldn't stop the tears. She had been holding everything back for so very long and she didn't have the strength to keep the tears in. Everything had fallen apart and she had tried so hard, so very very hard to keep things together but no. She sat in the wake of a firestorm so great it not only threatened to burn up the whole world, it guaranteed it.

 

"The future's not," she managed to choke out but found she couldn't continue, "I'm sorry."

Eve began to squeal as Annie's hold on her grew tighter. Annie sobbed into the white fabric of Eve's onesy great heaving sobs that racked her entire body.

 

She wasn't just sorry. Annie was angry. She was really fucking angry. She was burning inside, the kind of burn that turned things white hot. And her insides were so hot that she was sure could have swallowed the entire ocean and it would be vapor in seconds. Annie wanted to scream, just fucking scream.

 

She sang instead.

 

"Que sera sera," she sang standing from her place on the couch, "whatever will be, will be the future's not our's to see que sera sera."

 

The infant only answered with a whine and bubble of snot. She was so blissfully unaware that it broke everything in Annie except for one piece. One tiny part of her, that had hardened to steel over the past four years from all the loss and the pain, and the fear and bitterness, that was all that was left of Annie. A piece of her that was just big enough to slice.

 

She bounced the baby lightly putting the little girl to sleep. Annie didn't want her awake for what was coming but she'd wake up eventually. She knew that she'd be awake the day the world ended.

 

"When I was just a little girl," Annie sang, "I asked my mother what will I be."

 

Killer, ghost, lover, poltergeist, Annie had become a lot of things since she had died all of which her mother never warned her about.

 

"Will I be pretty, will I be rich," she sang thinking about how she had once worried about those things.

 

Then she grew up. She had never noticed before but it hurt to grow up. It hurt while she was alive and it hurt when she died. Everything had hurt except for those rare rose-colored moments of pure bliss, getting her A-levels, holding her first love's hand, Pride and Prejudice with George and Mitchell, Tom's birthday. There were others but Eve would never have that. She would never have the chance to love someone who just wasn't bloody right for her, and then find that one person who was. She would never get to feel the sting and balm of life.

 

"When I was young, I fell in love," Annie continued the song, "I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead."

 

Owen was what was ahead and then after that Mitchell and then nothing. She felt like a dry well. After Owen, love became violence and after Mitchell it became blood. No one had told Annie she was a battered woman, no one had ever had the chance. She was dead by the time anyone realized but somewhere over the past four years she realized exactly what she had been.

 

She had been a victim her whole life and now Eve would be as well. Eve would be a victim of prophecy, a martyr but not if Annie ended it. Not if Annie burned the whole stupid prophecy to the ground.

 

"Que ser-"

 

"PLEASE PLEASE," a woman said from outside the door, "PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR!"

 

Annie pulled Eve closer fearful that the war had already begun. She backed away from the front door already thinking of a way to escape.

 

"PLEASE PLEEEASE," she screamed banging her fists on the door, "HE'S DYING! HE'S- ANNIE!"

 

At the sound of her name she turned to flee. If that woman knew her name then that woman already knew too much. Annie didn't have any sympathy to spare a dying man. He'd probably be better off dead and on the other side with the way things were going. She had to get Eve to safety.

 

"ANNIE PLEASE," the woman sobbed, "PLEASE IT'S HAL, HAL IS DYING."

 

At the mention of the vampire Annie paused. The woman had stopped pounding and all Annie could hear were deep heavy sobs muffled by two doors and the short hallway between them. She waited for what was probably too long to be appropriate before putting Eve into her pram and running to the door.

 

The sight that met her outside the second door was both sickening and terrifying. A young woman sat on Annie's porch her make up running and mixing with dark blood smeared across her cheeks. Her clothes were covered in the dark substance as well and at her feet was a strange dark mass that couldn't have been a person. It couldn't have been Hal.

 

But it was.

 

\-------BHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBHBH-------

 

"Oh god," Annie said frozen to her spot just inside the threshold, "oh god."

 

Alex didn't move either. She was so scared, so confused and the woman before wasn't at all what she expect but only because she hadn't had any expectations at all. The poor girl couldn't believe that someone had come to her rescue. Her knight in cotton gray.

 

"Annie?" Alex said wiping the tears from her face, "are you Annie? He said – he said to take him to Annie."

 

Annie didn't respond right away. Her jaw becam slack and her eyes were so wide she could feel the light evening breeze brush against her veins. She had come to the realization that the bloody pulp spread out on her porch steps was in fact Hal. Hal who sings Motown in marigolds while washing up, Hal who does origami from 1-1:50, Hal who is the most terrifying and formidable being she has ever met was the bloody pulp on her porch steps.

 

"Please are you Annie?" Alex said rising up from her seated position, "hullo? Are you even listening!"

 

Alex was beyond distressed and the fact that this random woman who was supposed to help her wasn't actually doing anything just made her pissed.

 

"Yes – yes I'm sorry yes I'm Annie," she said fumbling over her words, "quick get him in the house."

 

Annie rent-a-ghosted out of the house so that she was standing at what would have been Hal's feet. She reached down and lifted his legs into her arms. Alex followed Annie's lead and looped her arms under his armpits and lifted him as best as she could.

 

"You're really good at that you know," Alex grunted struggling to keep Hal from falling to the floor, "better than me at least."

 

"I'm sorry what?" Annie said just as breathless.

 

"Rent-a-ghosting," Alex said before stopping and looking around in confusion, "em where are we goin' from here?"

 

Annie's head popped up to take in her exact surroundings and found that they had barely gotten past the door. She adjusted her hold on his legs quickly before pointing out the direction of the stairs.

 

"Up the stairs, then," she said already regretting the notion as she spoke it, "we need to get him up to his room and…uh thanks I've had a lot of practice is all."

 

Annie wasn't quite sure how she was supposed to react to the other woman. Annie didn't even know her name and now this woman was in her house and going up her stairs. A million things were running through her head. How did this woman know Hal? How the hell did she manage to get him all the way here? Could she be trusted?

 

Annie suddenly felt exposed and awkward. There was a stranger in her home, a dead one at that, but she couldn't move Hal on her own. She couldn't do this all alone.

 

Alex sighed as well at the word "stairs". How did someone weight so much?

 

After a few seconds of awkward stumbling and stopping, Annie and Alex developed a pace, a very very slow pace, up the stairs. Every so often Annie would count aloud with each step trying her very best to concentrate on her feet and not the slices in Hal's flesh. However, it was only a matter of time before Annie got a good look at the mess that was Hal's torso. Her stomach turned and she was sure if she still had a stomach she would have threw up bile. Annie knew what had made those scars she had seen them on so many of her friends. The spacing of the gashes, the depth and the ferocity at which they were made, it all pointed to one kind of monster.

 

_Werewolf._

 

"It's just down that way," Annie said once they'd reached the top of the stairs.

 

"Where?" Alex said out of breath and more than just a tad frustrated.

 

"It's right – over - just go – ugh, " Annie sighed in exasperation; they weren't going to get anywhere like that, "here let's switch and I'll lead the way."

 

They placed the injured vampire gingerly on the ground before switching places and lifting him again. Both women let out a sound of surprise when Hal let out of soft grunt of pain. He mumbled something but neither Annie nor Alex could make anything of his unintelligible babble so they continued on. When they reached Hal's door Annie awkwardly fought with the handle using her elbow to turn knob. Once the door was opened, the two women moved as quickly as they could to the immaculately made bed. Annie felt just the slightest bit of regret as she placed the bleeding vampire on the perfectly made bed. Hal really did know how to keep a clean space. Alex couldn't have cared less. The two stood in silence for a moment feeling both triumphant and helpless. Then Alex broke out into tears.

 

"Oh," Annie said taken aback by the sudden outburst of emotion, "uh I-I- it's okay. There there."

 

Annie reached out a hand to pat the other woman tentatively on the shoulder. Alex didn't notice the gesture she was too overcome by the events of the night. She was dead and Hal was probably dead. Her dad and her brothers would have to see what the bastard, Cutler, had done to her. Too much had happened that night for Alex, far too much.

 

"It's okay," Annie said, "it's okay we'll work this out. Hal will be okay."

 

"Oh sod him!" Alex said harshly moving away from Annie's reach, "he's the reason I got into this mess. He's the reason I'm dead."

 

Annie stood back shocked by the new information. She didn't know what she would have said if she had had the chance to respond but she would never know. A sound from Hal stopped her from saying anything in response.

 

"No hos- no hospitals," Hal slurred and Annie was at his side in a moment trying to calm him with soft words and her hand on his brow, "take me home, take me to Annie."

 

Annie's heart swelled at his use of the word home. Home, this was her home, and it was Hal's as well and Tom's. Her boys. Perhaps Mitchell, George and Nina had gone and maybe the world was coming to an end but she still had her boys and they still had their home. She would dismantle that prophecy one way or another but first Hal.

 

"Go down the hall take the second left and there should be a door there," Annie said sounding very sure of herself, "grab a sheet any sheet, no wait not any of the one's from the third shelf from the top but from anywhere else and then bring it to me."

 

Alex paused for only a second looking at the two unsure of how she should react. Then she hurried out of the room and down the hall to perform her give task. Annie teleported down stairs and gathered up a bowl filled with water, a cloth, a scissors and a knife. Hal would survive the night; Annie would make sure of that but she knew he would need more than warm water and make shift bandages. He would need blood. She had been so determined that night, so full of resolute fervor.

 

Seven years later in her little square prison filled with tea boxes, postcards and bitter memories, Annie thinks of how naive she had been. In retrospect Annie would have been better off letting him die.


	3. Chapter 3

"He's going to need blood," Annie said wiping the sweat from her brow, "these wounds won't heal until he's had blood."

She tightened the makeshift bandages covering Hal's torso. Then she ran her fingers lightly over them. Already a faint pink was beginning to show through the sheets.

"Right well he's already had some," Alex said bitterly, " _my_ blood to be precise."

Annie looked up at the young Scottish woman in shock. She had forgotten what Alex had said before about how Hal was the reason she was dead. Annie suddenly felt very ashamed. She knew what it was like to be dead and forgotten, for one's death to go unknown and unresolved.

"Did he – did Hal kill you?" Annie said fearful of what the answer might be.

Alex looked the other woman over. For a moment she thought about lying and saying that he had actually killed her. He practically did. She could just imagine how much shit Annie would give him for killing someone. Maybe the other ghost would even put the poor guy out of his misery.

"No," Alex said, in the end she couldn't do it, it'd probably hurt Annie more than it would hurt Hal.

And Alex found that she actually quite liked the other ghost even if she was a bit spacey.

"No he was tricked or somethin'," Alex continued, "it was that bastard Cutler who actually killed me. Hal was just the reason I got involved."

Annie wasn't comforted by the new information. She supposed it was a good thing that Hal hadn't actually killed someone but he drank blood. He had fallen off the wagon. Images of black eyes and blood-splashed headlines assaulted her mind. She thought of Mitchell and the Box Tunnel 20. Annie found no comfort in hearing that Hal had not killed Alex; she only felt nauseous.

"He'll need more if he's going to survive," Annie said remembering years ago when Herrick stuck a stake through Mitchell's chest.

"Well how are we going to get it to him," Alex said crossing her arms over her chest, "oooh is like in that TV show where they have little bottles filled with synthetic stuff in it?"

Annie just stared at her a look of utter confusion and incredulity on Annie's face. Alex seemed excited at the idea. It must have been an interesting TV show but Annie had no idea what this "synthetic stuff" was.

"Noooo," Annie said not quite sure how to break the news to Alex, "I'm going to the hospital and I am going to _steal_ some."

"Oh," Alex said immediately crestfallen, "I didn't know, sorry. I'm new to this world."

"Believe me I know that feeling," Annie said walking out of the room to the bathroom, "don't feel bad. I've barely got the hang of it even after years of trying."

Alex trailed behind her suddenly very curious about the other woman.

"You've been a ghost for a while, then?" Alex asked.

Annie turned the faucet letting loose a stream cool water in the sink and thrust her hands under the water. She wasn't quite sure why she avoided the question. Annie just didn't feel too comfortable sharing her life or death with someone she'd only just met. Slowly the blood on her hands and sleeves began to rise in smoke and evaporate from her skin, an unnatural sight to see.

"Oh! _Christ!_ … _what_ is that?" Alex said backing away from the other ghost like she had seen something terribly offensive, "what the bloody hell is that?"

Annie backed up as well throwing her hands in the air and looking everywhere for a threat of some kind. She didn't relax despite not finding one. In Annie's experience it was always the threats you didn't see that ended up mucking everything up the worst.

" _What_?" Annie cried eyes darting wildly, "what is it?"

"The blood," Alex said, "the blood on your hands just - it just like evaporated or somethin'."

"Oh," Annie said breathing out a sigh, "I thought it was something bad. You really need to calm down."

Annie couldn't even begin to discuss the irony of her words. Annie was anything was calm but she was very good at pretending.

"What did you just do with your hands and how or where do I learn," Alex said though she still sounded distressed, she was quite the sarcastic one.

"I don't exactly know how it works but the blood isn't really real," Annie explained with difficulty, "it's like the blood is just a figment of our imaginations. We see blood and we think it should stain our clothes and our hands and so it does but it's not real. It's all in our heads."

"So then what's with the water?" Alex asked.

"Like I said, it's all in our heads," Annie replied, "but visuals help."

"That's pretty cool," Alex said curiously reaching her hands out to the water.

Alex thought she could feel the water but the sensation faded. Cold or wet, she couldn't distinguish but she focused on the idea of washing up on what it _should_ feel like. Her mouth dropped open as the blood began to disappear like it did with Annie.

"Well that's just brill," Alex said, " got any other tricks up your sleeves, your very gray cotton-y sleeves."

Annie smiled because Alex reminded her of a different time. A time where Annie would jump around a pink house in Bristol trying to be scary or trying to figure out how the whole dead thing worked. She was reminded of a young man in cut down in his prime. RAF Pilot's uniform, military salutes and walks in the park.

"Yea I think I have a couple of tricks I could teach you," Annie said, "but first we've got to get Hal stable."

Then Eve woke up screaming her cries echoing through the whole house and Annie realized she couldn't go to the hospital. Her stomach sank because there was no way she could get to the hospital. It wasn't safe outside for Eve and it definitely wasn't safe to leave the baby there alone.

"Em you gonna get that?" Alex asked standing aside awkwardly.

"Alex, I need you to do me a favor," Annie said, "a _huge_ favor."

"How huge we talkin'?" Alex replied.

* * *

" _Annie_ ," Alex hissed at the woman who was currently rummaging around for a knapsack, "Annie I don't think I can do this."

"Don't be ridiculous you'll do fine," Annie said and then let out a sound of satisfaction as she wrapped her hands around what she had been looking for.

Alex stood in the middle of Annie's room as the other woman moved about looking for a pen and piece of paper.

"Alex!" Annie called not noticing that the other woman was still in the room with her.

"Present," Alex said pulling an exaggerated expression of the perfect student.

She wove her fingers together, smiled being sure to show off her pearly whites and put her forearms out and flat as though they were placed docile on a desk. Her sarcasm went unnoticed.

"I'm going to write down a list of things that we're going to need," Annie said, "it's not too much, I can go myself once Tom gets back but – Oh! You'll need a map of some sort, can't have you getting lost and all."

Annie went on a hunt again for another piece of paper. When she found a nice clean sheet she began to work out a juvenile map of the hospital. Annie being Annie drew little pictures and symbols all over the place. She made sure to leave little notes of instruction as to how to get to the right place. Alex walked up behind her and tilted her head to get a good look at the drawing.

"Hold on," Alex said hands on her hips, "how do you know all this about the hospital? Were you like some kinda nurse there or somethin'?"

"No my friends work - well _worked_ in hospitals a lot and they always told me that hospitals are all set up in a pretty similar way," Annie rambled concentrating on her drawing, "plus I've broken in before."

"Now that's what I'm talkin' about," Alex said grinning wryly and Annie grinned back.

"All right, Alex," Annie said straightening up, and handing the Scottish woman the map, the knapsack and the list, "now you need to concentrate. I showed you that picture of the hospital on the computer so just concentrate on that and chances are you'll get pretty close."

"Wait _pretty close_?" Alex said, "what do you mean _pretty_ **close**?"

"You've got a few things holding you down," Annie said reaching up to place a reassuring hand on Alex's shoulder, "but don't worry you're a fast learner you'll do great. Just _focus_."

Alex gave Annie a nervous glance then looked at the knapsack and two pieces of paper in her hand.

"Hang on to those," Annie said trying her best to look cheery, "don't drop them I'm not sure what happens to the stuff you let go of while rent-a-ghosting."

Alex still didn't move or leave. She was scared, which was a strange thing to feel once one was already dead. Annie had explained that nothing could really hurt them now that they were dead. Ghosts didn't have bodies to hurt and any sensation they felt was a trick of the imagination. They were a burning candle without the wax. But that presented a new dilemma, an even more terrifying idea. Perhaps they were not waxless flames, free of pain and pleasure. Maybe they were more like snails robbed their shells more perceptible to both agony and bliss.

Frankly the thought was a just a little bit too Friedrich Nietzsche for Alex so she ignored it and smiled back at Annie. The sassy Scottish lady shrugged her shoulders and with a half bitter half excited whisper of 'well here goes nothing' she was gone.

* * *

Annie took a deep breath once the Scottish woman popped out of the air. She held it in all the way until she entered Hal's room where the injured vampire slept. Every other room in the house felt either too empty or too dangerous. It was the only place Annie felt safe. A year later that statement would be ironic.

Baby Eve gurgled as Annie bounced her on her knee. The little girl had been Annie's one tether to the ground at first then she had been surprised to realize she had Hal and Tom as well. She should have died really actually died when George left, when Nina left, when _Mitchell_ left but she didn't. She had survived and if she could just pull through one more night, if everyone could get past that night Annie was sure that everything would be okay.

She was wrong.

"Ann- Annie," Hal croaked from the bed, "Annie."

"Hal!" she said.

Her feet couldn't take to him fast enough. She fell to her knees besides him with Eve still pressed against her chest. His eyes were squeezed shut and his bottom lip was between his teeth.

From the corner of his mouth just the tiniest bit of red peeked out but Annie saw. She reached out her hand and brushed it away with a part of her sleeve. Annie wanted to tell him everything. She wanted someone else to know what she had seen and what she now knew. Annie wanted someone to share her burden with but Hal was too weak. He was dying.

He let out another groan and there was more blood at the corner of his mouth this time. Annie wiped it away dutifully. All the while she kept Eve close to her one hand wrapped protectively around the baby the other tending to Hal. She swiped her thumb carefully over the corner of his mouth.

"Hal," Annie said hoarsely, "I need you to wake up. The streets aren't safe anymore and we need a plan. I can't do this on my own, Hal. I need you to get better. I need you to try, at least, _please_."

He gave no answer to her pleas only made another heavy sigh, a slurred moan of distress. Annie looked down at the baby in her arms and then back to the dying vampire in the bed and for a second she considered running. She considered taking the baby and just making a run for it.

She was certain she could make it pretty far. If she stayed hidden, kept to the shadows then she and Eve could probably go years without detection. There would be no War Child, there would be no savior just a gray ghost and a little girl wandering the world but that would never work. Nothing is ever that simple.

Someone would find them be it vampire or otherwise. Someone would figure it all out and then where would they be, she and Eve. Alone without a friend in the world.

Annie had already seen the future, the war, the death and suffering, Annie had seen it all. Eve or whoever that woman was had spared her no image of the time to come no matter how gruesome or disturbing. But the thing about seeing the future is that you don't ever really learn from it. You can't because life doesn't work in reverse like that.

Annie saw the future but all she could think was that it wasn't real. The future wasn't real yet and it could still be changed but Hal was now. Tom was now. Eve was now and the future didn't matter, it couldn't. At least she couldn't let it matter because the whole thing was driving her _mad_.

She just wanted Hal to wake up or for Tom to get back. She just needed _someone_.

"Annie," Hal mumbled, "they - they - get out get out _ruuuun_."

She took his hand in her own as if to say 'yes, I'm here'. He continued to babble incoherently and when Annie went to check his wounds she nearly threw up. Beneath the makeshift bandages was the foulest of odors. His flesh was decaying yet at the same time he was heating up with fever speeding up the rot. Hal wasn't dying; he was already dead. Nature was just finishing up what the supernatural had started.

"Annie," Hal said but the rest of his sentence was too soft to make out.

Annie leaned down to put her ear closer. She waited for him to speak again and what he hissed made her shiver. Everything seemed to stop.

" _They're here_."


	4. Chapter 4

"Who's here?"

"Gah! Oh! My _gosh_ ," Annie said holding Eve close to her chest, "Alex you scared me."

Annie had taken a defensive position. She had her body slightly turned away from Alex shielding the child from any danger but she also kept herself between the door, where Alex stood, and Hal. Despite being scared out of her wits she was still Annie and Annie would fight hell and death for the patrons of her home.

"Sorry," Alex said her shoulders slumped with the weight of the heavy knapsack on her back, "you can relax now. I'm not gonna steal your baby or anything."

Annie looked at her position almost in surprise but not embarrassment. Too many risks that night, too much danger and she would not feel _bad_ for being cautious. She straightened up and loosened her hold on Eve but she didn't move from Hal's side. Alex put the IV pole in her right hand down on the ground. She had almost lost it twice in the jump from the hospital to the B &B.

"Sorry," Annie said watching Alex remove the knapsack from her back, "you just scared me is all. Been a bit on the edge."

"Yea I can imagine," Alex replied, "this whole night's been a mess."

That was the understatement of the year. Alex had been killed by _vampires_ of all things and now she was ghost teleporting all over Barry stealing blood from hospitals for an injured vampire. Things had gone beyond weird or messed up. The world had gone completely mental.

"Mhm," Annie said weakly letting out a sigh, "did you bring everything? You didn't run into any trouble did you?"

Annie dreaded the answer. If the war had begun then there would be no time to wait for Hal, no time to wait for Tom. She didn't want to abandon them but if the world had gone to hell then Barry was where it would all start and she could _not_ lose Eve. She had made a promise.

"Nope," Alex replied turning her attention to the contents of the knapsack, "everything seems pretty normal out there. Except for a bunch of teenagers screaming about werewolves and whatnot."

"What?" Annie said, "Werewolves?"

Her mind immediately went to Tom. The night was over though the morning had not yet begun they were somewhere in between. Tom usually didn't return after a full moon until late in the morning almost noon tired and dirty. Annie couldn't help but hurry him in her head.

"Believe me I was just as surprised," Alex said removing the packets of blood from the bag, "I mean vampires, ghosts and now werewolves. What will happen next?"

Annie stared at the other ghost genuinely confused.

"You mean you didn't know – Hal, he was - ," Annie said stumbling not to find the right words but where to begin, "I thought you saw what happened to him last night. I thought you knew."

"Oh _no_ ," Alex said both exasperated and embarrassed, "don't tell me I missed something else."

"Those wounds on his chest," Annie explained placing the now sleeping Eve into the pram, "were from a werewolf. He was attacked. If we're on the subject, what exactly happened last night, Alex?"

"Well you seem to know more than I do," Alex replied crossing her arms just the slightest bit bitter.

"Come on I just knew about the werewolf," Annie said comfortingly trying to soothe the other woman's ego, "you were _there_ it would be helpful to know what went on from someone who was actually there."

Annie briefly wondered if the way she felt then was what Sykes felt years back, both scared and powerful, suspicious yet desperate for understanding. Then she wondered if Alex was feeling what she felt back when she had first met not only Sykes but Gilbert as well, ignorant and simple yet utterly not alone. Comradery and suspicion seemed to be a constant between the dead.

Alex kept her arms crossed and glared at the floor but when she looked up at the other woman who waited earnestly for her to speak she let out a sigh. Rolling her eyes she began her tale of what happened only just a few hours before. Annie listened and began to set up Hal's blood transfusion, a skill she had learned online just a few minutes before.

* * *

"So some bloke comes up from behind me and chloroforms me," Alex said pacing back and forth across the room, " _chloroform_ , Annie. Date rape much? And the next thing I know I'm hoisted up and strapped to a fence with some freak in a cheap suit monologue-ing his plans for world domination at me."

Annie fumbled with the needle. She didn't realize just how difficult finding a blood vessel in a dead man would be.

"Not to say it wasn't a bloody good idea if not a bit half baked," Alex continued, "but then he starts talkin' about Hal and how he killed his wife and some bullshit about drinking blood. And that's when things got really weird. He said he was going to drink my blood _**my blood**_. Well you can imagine that's when the screaming started and the beggin' and pleadin'."

Alex stopped her pacing. Memories of her death came rushing back to her. The pain and the horror of being drained of every last drop of blood in her body hit her like a sack of potatoes, correction a million sacks of a million potatoes.

Annie watched the other woman relive her death. Annie wasn't sure if everyone forgot the details. If it was some sort of last defense or mechanism their souls put into motion to protect them from the horror, the horror, Annie didn't know.

"And the next thing I know," Alex said, "I'm lookin' at myself and I'm dead. I'm bloody fuckin' _dead_."

It was awhile before Alex spoke again and for a good five minutes the two women sat in silence either one mourning for her own loss. Two women killed because they trusted a man. Victims of brutality they shared a moment of understanding of the evils that one person could inflict upon another.

Then Alex resumed her story describing her hours alone hiding away from her corpse and the monster that had made it. She told Annie about how scared she was and how confused she felt. Then it was about her anger and then about her randiness and then her hunger. It was like going through detox.

"And so after Hal shows up Cutler goes on about how he's set Hal free. Then the next thing I know Hal's making me rent-a-ghost all over the place and he goes on about savin' his friend from killin' a bunch of people and I just assumed his friend was like 'im all fangy and such," Alex said, "and then he goes and tries to get all those kids to leave but the wanker forgets to unlock the doors so I go outside to help them out yea? And not one of them thanks me."

Annie sat frozen to her seat besides Hal's bed. Friend? Hal's friend, who is a werewolf? In her mind she tried to find any kind of explanation and path of reason that didn't lead to what logic was screaming at her. It was Tom. It had to be Tom.

"They couldn't see you," Annie mumbled catching that last part, "no one can see you now."

"Wot?" Alex exclaimed, "but you can see me."

"I'm dead," Annie replied.

"But Hal can see me too."

"Yes and he's also dead."

"So it's just dead people then?" Alex said.

"Well that and any other supernatural being I suppose," Annie replied though as she thought about it she realized that she hadn't met a very large variety of supernaturals.

They had either been dead or a werewolf, except Yvonne of course. There was a whole world of strange out there that Annie had yet to explore.

"So say if went to see my dad, my brothers, they wouldn't be able to see me?" Alex said the look on her face somber.

Annie was shocked by the question. She had never felt the need to see her family again after the funeral. Surrounded by her friends and family, she had got that part right, but none of them could even see her. They didn't even know she was there and then they all got over it. They all grew out of the pain. And although that's what she should have wanted, it had scarred her. The transparency, the emptiness she felt as they all carried on without her made her feel more than dead. It made her feel as though she had never even been born.

"No," Annie replied truly sympathetic, "I'm sorry but they wouldn't even be able to tell you were there."

Alex's gaze dropped into her lap. The young Scottish woman began to twiddle with her thumbs as she digested the new information. She was dead, proper dead. Her dad and her brothers weren't ever going to see her again. They'd never know what really happened to her or why. They'd be forever marked by her demise. An urgent need stirred within the woman. She needed to see them again. She just had to.

"But that doesn't mean you shouldn't see them," Annie said, "in fact maybe you should, oh gosh, hey maybe that's your unfinished business!"

"What?" Alex said breaking from her thoughts, "unfinished business? You _can't_ be serious."

"No I am," Annie said, "being serious that is. If you haven't seen your door –"

"Wait wait," Alex interjected, "door? Jeeze this is all just getting too cliché."

The poor woman was absolutely confused. Too many new concepts and ideas, too much heartbreak and nostalgia, Alex just couldn't keep up.

"Yes, the door to the afterlife," Annie said, "and long story short when you've died in such a sudden and violent way as you have well you have some unfinished business. So you get that all wrapped up with and you go on your way."

"Go on my way?" Alex said looking very incredulous.

"Yes," Annie replied, "you move on."

"Then what about you?" Alex asked, "what's your unfinished business?"

Annie was once again startled by Alex's bluntness.

"Oh um well my unfinished business was _complicated_ ," Annie said unwilling to bring up the whole mess with Owen and Herrick and _Mitchell_ , "and I can't really be sure about it but the point is that you should try to figure out what your unfinished business is."

Alex quieted at the mention of her own unfinished business. She wanted to see them; she _needed_ to see them. Her brothers and her father, how would they ever get on without her? They were practically invalids at anything that actually mattered. She needed to see them.

"But what about you," Alex said glancing over at the still comatose Hal, "I can't just leave you here…with _that_. And you've got a baby and jeeze Annie I-"

Annie cut her off with a wave of her hand.

"No no no no," she said shaking her head, "Alex please, I've already held you up too long. Believe me I've had to deal with worse and Tom should be home soon. This isn't your battle, this isn't your problem."

Annie glanced at the hands of the clock, which hung on Hal's wall. He had refused a digital one claiming it let of a constant hum that made it impossible for him to get any semblance of rest. The hands read 4:34 am.

"But Annie," Alex said unsure of her next move.

Alex wanted to leave. She wanted to see her family and scream at them and tell them everything even though they couldn't hear her and then…well she didn't know what she'd do after that. Maybe Annie was right maybe she'd finally pass over but she hesitated.

She felt some kind of alliance to the older ghost. There was something about Annie that filled Alex with a strange kind of longing. Alex couldn't put her finger on it but as she looked over at the other woman whose soft pink smile urged her onward a word came to mind. _Mother_. Alex had never had a real mother but she figured that if her mother had been any good she would have been a bit like Annie.

"Alex please," Annie said, "we'll be fine. Don't even think about us. Don't even worry."

Annie sat with her legs crossed on a cushioned chair positioned next to Hal's bedside. The pram, which held the baby that Alex had not learned the name of, sat just to the right of the gray ghost on another chair. Annie's hand rested on the edge of Hal's bed only just touching his bare arm. Despite the fact that the baby was the supposed savior of the world, the man a seriously injured vampire and the woman a ghost they seemed to scream domesticity something that Alex had never really known.

"I'm sorry," Alex said and rose from her seat across the room.

She rushed over to Annie and pulled the woman into a tight hug. Annie looked surprised at first but then she relaxed into the embrace. Just a few hours ago they had been two strangers covered in blood but now there was a profound connection between the two women. Born again from blood and violence, Annie and Alex had found solace in each other.

"Goodbye," Alex said she pulled away quickly afraid that if she didn't she'd keep holding on, "and thank you."

Annie was going to ask "what for?" but before she could speak Alex was gone. Her image flashed out of the air and Annie was once again the only ghost that haunted Honolulu Heights.

* * *

Annie stared at the clock. It read 9:34 am. For the last four hours or so Annie had sat on her chair between Eve and Hal leaving only to heat up bottles of milk for Eve when the child woke or to walk her around downstairs when she fussed. Other than that she sat still as a statue thinking and speculating over the night she had endured.

Hal had yet to wake up and Annie tried her best to remain calm about that fact. Mitchell had healed up in an hour or so once the first blood transfusion had finished. Hal was already on his second packet of blood and still no sign of consciousness.

Eve let out another piercing shriek as Annie tired desperately to quiet her. Nothing, absolutely nothing had happened since Alex's departure. The sky didn't fall, the world didn't end and there was no sign of vampires. The calm made Annie nervous.

"Oh come now Eve," Annie pleaded bouncing the crying child on her hip, "please quiet down now."

Annie didn't feel comfortable leaving Hal alone upstairs and as much as she wanted the vampire to wake she didn't want Eve to disturb his sleep. Then Eve caught one of the ghost's fingers between her gums and the crying instantly stopped.

"Oh sweetie," Annie said adjusting her hold on the child so Eve could keep Annie's finger, "I'm so sorry I forgot. You've begun teething haven't you?"

Annie began to coo and mumble to the child. Eve mumbled back trying to mimic the movements of Annie's mouth but the finger between her gums garbled the sounds. Such a pretty picture they made, though not actually because the picture would just be of a floating baby which would be disturbing.

"Don't worry about that, Eve," Annie said, "Tom and I are prepared for this. We're quite clever the two of us together, you know. Your Uncle Hal though doesn't seem to know much about babies."

Annie leaned in close the child then looked from side to side as though she were about to reveal a great secret.

"I personally think he's just scared of you," Annie whispered lovingly then giggled, "you must seem very small and very fragile to him. We must all seem that way to him. Poor Uncle Hal."

Annie, over the last few months, had got into the habit of talking to the child as though she could understand her, as though she could respond. It was a habit born out of loneliness, out of neglect.

She made her way up the stairs still babbling away about the two men with whom they lived. And for a moment Annie forgot about everything but that little girl. She forgot about the vampires and about Tom and what she would tell him when he finally did get home. She forgot about the broken and battered vampire just down the hall and about the dead girl who had brought him to her doorstep. For a moment it was just Annie and Eve.

That is until the front door slammed open.


	5. Chapter 5

At the sound of the door handle hitting the wall and the ornate glass in their white panes shaking, Annie froze. She locked those doors. She _knew_ for a fact that she locked those doors.

"Anneh!" Tom called from the living room, "Anneh! Hal!"

Tom had woken up that morning in a shallow trench just on the edge of the woods covered in dirt and blood and most terrifyingly not alone. He had awoken to the face of an old man staring down at him with a look of boredom.

"You've been 'ere in my ditch for a good two hours, boy," the old hobo said crouched down balancing on the balls of his feet, "you're lucky I 'avent stuck one through ya for it. Couldn't bring myself ta do it seein' as you're in such an _indecent_ state."

Sure enough Tom was naked as the day he was born in a ditch that smelt of piss, stale beer, and blood.

_Blood, blood, blood. Human blood? No. dead blood._

_Dead. Blood._

He scrambled up and out of the ditch fully intending to run home naked but then politely asked the old man, "please sir, may I borrow yar pants."

To which the [homeless](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7941801/5/All_Her_Boxes_of_Tea) man replied, "aw hell I wasn't really usin' 'um anyway."

Tom arrived at Honolulu half naked and dirty as a hobo's ditch.

Annie only got half way down the stairs before she ran straight into Tom.

"Anneh!" Tom exclaimed bumping into the woman but the immediately steadying her.

"Tom!" Annie very nearly shouted in relief at the sight of the young man, "oh Tom I'm so glad to see you."

She pulled her finger away from Eve to wrap her free arm around her friend. She was so delighted to see him she didn't notice his stench or state of dress. _At first_.

"Oh my gosh, Tom," Annie said pulling back as Eve began to screech, "what happened to you? You look terrible."

"Ya rough nigh', Anneh," he said trying to move past her but Annie wasn't having it, "I dun mean to be rude but I need ta talk to Hal. If you'd please move out of the way Anneh."

His tone, a mixture of steely courtesy and bitter dismissal, only made Annie square her shoulders and stand her ground. Tom rolled his eyes and got ready for a stern talking to.

"I am not liking that tone Thomas and what exactly is _that_ supposed to mean?" Annie said putting her hand on her hip but then rethinking the action and placed, "What has been going on while I was away?"

Annie had been prepared for many answers. She had been prepared for wild parties, girls, stupid irrational plans of action. She hadn't prepared for angry retaliation.

"That's just the thing though ain't it, Annie?" Tom said, "you've been away. You left us, Annie. You left me and Hal and Eve without a note or any warnin'. So if you want ta know what when on while you were gone you should 'ave stuck around instead of up and disappearin' on us like that Anneh."

He never raised his voice because as angry as he was Tom would never raise his voice to a lady. Annie stood shocked by Tom's admission of anger and betrayal. She _hadn't_ left a note, she hadn't even said goodbye knowing very well that there was a chance that she might never come back.

The other woman, the one who claimed to be Eve, had said it was urgent but nothing should be so urgent that you up and leave the people you love without so much as a warning. Annie had no idea how to respond and when she made no sound Tom pushed past her. He made sure not put her off balance or to push to hard because as irritated as he was with Annie's absence he would never use violence against her.

"Tom wait," Annie said snapping out of her stupor, "Tom! Come back here, Tom."

But the burden of the baby slowed her down and Tom reached Hal's room before she did, before she could explain. When she got there she found Tom standing in the door way frozen by the shock of Hal's state.

"What 'appened," Tom said.

"Tom, it wasn't your fault -" Annie began.

"NO! Anneh just tell me what happened," he said, " don't make excuses for meh and don't try to make it bettah. Just tell me what I did."

Annie honestly didn't know what to do at that moment. She could lie to him. She could say that it was some other werewolf. She could have lied but then Annie would just be a liar.

"Hal was attacked by a werewolf," Annie said, "and I believe as best to my knowledge, Tom that that werewolf was you."

Annie waited for Tom's reaction.

"This is my fault," he mumbled looking over his injured friend, "this is all my fault."

He sounded so broken, so lost and it came as no surprise to Annie when he made a dash for the door. She knew she wouldn't be able to stop him so instead she put Eve into her pram and followed the werewolf out the door. The child had somehow fallen asleep in Annie's arms despite all the tension and excitement.

Four years later in the rebel camps when they try to get a little blond girl to sleep, no warmth will comfort her. She refuses the fleece blanket they offer her. Instead she seeks and finds a man dressed in World War II RAF Pilot uniform who is callous and estrange but kind when he tries. She curls up on his lap and only there in the soft, cold cradle created by his criss-crossed legs does she find comfort. She dreams of a different cradle, cold and soft as well but made of gray cotton and soft brown skin. Four years later Eve would dream of the only home she had ever had.

"Tom don't run away," Annie called after the young man but when she saw him head towards the stairs she shouted, "don't you dare leave this house, Tom."

That got the werewolf to stop and turn around. Annie stumbled to a stop so as not to run into the furious young man.

"Or what, Annie?" Tom said and for the first time Annie was truly afraid of him, "you ain't me mum. You don get to tell me wha to do and wha not to do."

"But I _am_ your-"

"What, Annie?" Tom said not yet ready to hear her speak, "You're my _whot_? My landlady? My caretaker? My _whot_?"

He moved closer with every word. With each step he became more menacing and a violent rage built itself a sanctuary behind his large dark eyes. This was the man Future Eve had spoken of, this was the bitterness that would eventually eat him up and kill the kind sweet boy that Annie knew and loved. The future was already here.

"Your _friend_ ," Annie managed to choke out, "I'm your friend, Tom and I'm asking you as your friend not to leave. _Please_ , Tom don't leave me here alone."

Neither realized just how close they were. Annie didn't feel the wall against her back and if Tom had got any closer she probably would have just fazed right through it. Time seemed to stretch as either person waited for the other to break. Then Tom spoke.

" _Fine_ ," he said and turned to lock himself in his room.

Annie let out sigh and put her hands to her face. Her hands twitched there on her cheeks when she felt her tears. She didn't even realize she had been crying.

"Hul – oh gosh are you okay?"

"Aghuah!" Annie screamed at the sound of the Scottish accent, "Oh. My. _Goodness_ , Alex. We really need to talk about rent-a-ghost etiquette."

Annie swiped the tears on her face away trying her best not to let Alex see.

"What are you doing back here?" Annie said but then realized just how rude she sounded, "I'm sorry. What I mean is…what are you doing back here?"

She really couldn't find any other way to say it.

"I went to see me dad and brothers," Alex replied avoiding contact, "they couldn't see me like you said. They didn't even realize I was missin'"

Annie rose to her feet once her tears had stopped.

"I'm sorry," she said reaching out to place a sympathetic hand on the woman's shoulder.

Annie didn't notice the way Alex twitched at the physical contact. She also didn't see the way Alex's eyes flashed when a baby's cry broke out.

"Oh no," Annie said sighing, "she's teething. Do you think you could maybe go up to the attic and get her a teething ring from the yellow drawer set up against the left wall."

"Yea sure of course, Annie," Alex said more than happy to help, "but where are you off to?"

"I've got to talk to Tom," Annie replied looking like she had the weight of the world upon her shoulders.

But it was just the future of the entire human and supernatural race that sat on those slim shoulders. Just that is all.

"No doubt he's already locked himself in," Annie said feeling suddenly awkward under the other woman's gaze, "so now I've to gotta, ya know, coax him out and what not."

There was a pause before Annie threw her arms around the younger woman.

"I'm really very sorry," she said, "but I'm so glad to see you."

Alex didn't know how to react at first. She thought about hugging her back but she couldn't bring herself to do so, perhaps out of guilt.

"I'm glad to see you too, Annie," Alex replied, "but you better get to Tom and I'll go get that teething ring. Where is the little tike anyway?"

"She's in Hal's room," Annie replied and she missed it again.

Annie missed the slight twitch in Alex's right eye, the queer movement of her left shoulder and the way the Scottish woman clenched her fists. She was too focused on Tom to notice all the details. All she knew was that she had trusted Alex before. She didn't know that the game had changed.

In just a few hours everything had changed.

* * *

"Tom," Annie said into the worn down door, "Tom please we need to talk. I know you're upset but there are things we have to discuss."

Annie leaned into the door as though she had a huge secret.

"very important things like end-of-the-world important!"

Annie waited and waited and then waited more but there was no reply from Tom. More and more her sympathy ebbed away.

"Tom I swear I will rent-a-ghost in there if I have to," Annie threatened.

Still no reply.

"Okay," Annie said trying not to sound as unsure as she felt, "I'm coming in. I'm coming right now at this moment I am teleporting into your room."

Annie stood outside hoping to hear the click of an unlocking door but there was no sound. She let out a huff of air, tapped her foot and looked around then there was a soft pop in the air and she was gone.

"I warned you, Tom," Annie said when she rematerialized in Tom's room, "and I'm really very sorry to invade your personal space like this but I need you to listen to what I've got to sa-"

Annie had this whole speech planned out. She knew exactly what to she wanted to say and what needed to be said. It all went out the window when she saw him.

He was curled up into himself like a child. There was a soft sound like the rustling of curtains. Annie knew that sound. It was the sound that Tom made when he cried. Annie had heard it many times before and she was certain Tom thought no one could hear him when he cried like that.

Tom thought he had perfected the art of the silent sob but the fact of the matter is that someone always heard him when he cried. McNair, Hal, Annie, George, Nina even Mitchell, they heard him when he cried.

"Oh Tom," Annie said her speech abandoned, "Tom it wasn't your fault."

She went to him immediately and dropped before him. He didn't resist her when she wrapped her arms around him. He just cried and cried because Hal was his best mate and he might have just killed him. Tom cried because Annie was such a nice and lovely lady and he had just raised his voice at her.

"It's not your fault, Tom," Annie whispered as Tom's tears soaked through her clothes, "I promise it isn't."

"But it is Anneh," Tom said his voice hoarse and raw, "it is my fault, I'm so sorry, Annie, but it's all my fault."

A chill ran through her as she looked into his eyes. That's when Annie realized Eve had yet to stop crying.

"Hal!" she said under her breath and in a flash she was gone.


	6. Chapter 6

**Seven Years Later**

There was a knock at the door. It made a metallic hollow sound that awoke Annie from her memories. Her eyes widened as she looked around at the room as though she was confused by what she saw.

She could have sworn she was just someplace else.

Another knock sounded and Annie was brought back fully to the present. She wasn't in Honolulu Heights with Tom, Hal, Eve and Alex. Honolulu Heights was ash, Tom, Eve and Alex were dead and Hal was just as well if not worst. Annie was trapped and the world was shit.

The door creaked open and she waited to hear Hal speak. He almost always greeted her with the time of day. She appreciated that because she could no longer tell the difference between morning, noon and afternoon. They all blended into gray now and then night faded into black.

"Hello, Annie," said a man but it was not Hal.

It was not Hal at all.

"I've come to talk about that proposition I made to you earlier," he drawled moving slowly across the room.

He stopped to stare at the shelf that held all of the little gifts and trinkets his progeny had bestowed upon the woman. Mr. Snow sneered at the silly things but the photograph caught his eye. He leaned in close but before he could even lift his hand to touch it Annie spoke.

"Don't you _dare_ ," she spat, although she had been hollowed out and beaten down there was still rage in her.

Rage that could make her tear down a building with her bare teeth.

"Mmm still feisty as ever I see," Mr. Snow said smirking at her little outburst.

He could practically _smell_ the electricity coming off of her. He knew she had power; he knew from experience.

"Now about that proposition," Mr. Snow said sweeping across the room to stand by Annie's side, "you're very certain that you won't give us an answer?"

Annie thought her silence was enough of an answer.

"Well good then," Mr. Snow said catching Annie off-guard.

She looked up at him from her seat with wide eyes. He was letting her go. He was letting her decide not to do this. Just the tiniest bit of hope swelled up in her because Annie was always and would always be a fool for hope.

"Because this wouldn't have been as fun if you cooperated."

Annie tried to scream.

* * *

**2011**

"Hal!" Annie screeched when she popped into the room.

The energy and electricity of the jump still running through her being took the place of adrenaline. Eve screamed from her pram squirming around but all Annie could see, all she could pay attention to was Alex.

The young Scottish woman straddled the still unconscious Hal, her knees resting on either side of his waist. She sat poised and ready to strike. Her arms were raised high over her head shoulder joint connected to the elbow leading up the forearm all the way to her hands that clutched a makeshift stake.

"No!" Annie howled and she launched herself into the air at the other woman.

There was a shout so horrid and terrible that it could not have come from the living. Later neither woman could decide who had made the sound nor was either willing to own up to it.

The two tumbled to the floor and the stake was knocked out of Alex's hands. It rolled under the small table in the middle of the room and Alex made a dive for it but Annie was having none of it. Annie leaped up and landed painfully on the other woman crushing her side into the floor.

Alex retaliated by elbowing Annie in the face causing her lip to split on her teeth. Alex went again and that time got Annie square on her cheek bone.

"Get the FUCK OFF OF ME!" Alex screeched pushing her hands into Annie's hair.

She bunched up a knot of curls in her hands and pulled as hard as she could causing Annie to cry out in pain. Annie gripped Alex's wrists digging her nails deep into what would have been skin if she still had a body. Annie was suddenly glad she didn't have time to properly cut her nails before she had died because the length came in handy.

"Ouuuuch! _Fuck_!" Alex screamed as pale red threads of what could have been blood ran down into her sleeves.

Annie was already aware of the extent of damage that other beings could inflict on a ghost, that being not much. She didn't know, however, how much damage one ghost could do to another not until that night.

Alex loosened her grip on Annie's hair and Annie took it as an opportunity to remove the pale vicious fingers from her curls. She ripped them free of her hair and pushed her hands downward. Her fists curled around Alex's fists made contact with the younger woman's chest. Annie could distinctly feel what would have been Alex's sternum as it bent under her fists.

"Oof," Alex said as though she had the air knocked out of her, "fer fuck's sake."

Annie managed to get her legs on either side of Alex's hips. She gripped the other woman tightly as she could with her thighs. Alex squirmed but Annie brought their combined fists down once more and Alex let out another cry.

"Let me gooo," she moaned, "let me the fuck go."

Annie kept their hands pressed into Alex's left collar bone but tried her best not to inflict anymore pain.

"Just let me _**DO IT**_!" Alex hissed, "he deserves to die. HE DESERVES TO DIE THAT _BASTARD_!"

She continued to rage against Annie but Annie was older. She was a more experienced ghost; she had more power. Annie's chest heaved though she had no lungs.

Rage, fear, anger. She didn't have lungs anymore or glands or chemicals running through her to make her _feel_ all those things but she still felt them. Annie felt _vicious_. She felt like she could tear worlds apart.

"Just – _please_ ," Alex said thickly as her emotions got the better of her, "it's all his fault. It's _all_ his fault."

After the tears started Alex forgot to struggle and she forgot about the stake just a foot or so out of her reach. With all the rage drained out of Alex and the violence that had been building up since Annie had got back from the future spent, the two women collapsed onto the floor.

Annie lay beside the younger ghost suddenly feeling all the blows the Scottish woman had landed. She briefly thought of George and just how proud he would have been. She had come a long way since their Gayest Ninja days.

From the corner of her eye she spotted Tom standing in the doorway. He hadn't seen the whole fight but he had seen the end and he felt damn proud. He'd never had the chance to see Annie fight. In fact he didn't take Annie for much of a fighter with all her "commandments" against violence but she was savage when she aimed to be.

"They're dead," Alex said capturing Annie's attention again, "me dad, me brothers they're all DEAD!"

A nasty hollowness grew in Annie as she spoke. This was the world Eve had warned her about. Whole families massacred, children crying in the streets, people herded like cattle in to camps made for slaughter. That future was already here.

"And it's all because of that blood suckin' wanker," Alex yelled pressing her palms into her eyes hoping to hold back the tears.

But it was no use. First the tears and then the great heaving sobs, Alex had held it all in for a good seven hours. For hours she had sat in their hotel room with the all the blood and body parts that used to make up her family until someone found them and took them away.

They had been murdered but not drained. They had been ripped to _shreds_ but not drained. There was no real point in her family's murder. It was pure mindless violence. It was evil.

"Fookin' vampires," Alex mumbled under her breath, "it's all their fault, it's all his fault."

"It's nah," Tom said finally finding his voice, "it's nah Hal's fault, not entirely. If you're lookin' for a vampire to blame, it's Cutler."

The name caught hold of Alex's attention.

"Cutler," she said as though testing the taste of it on her lips, "he's the one who killed me."

"Tha's righ," Tom said stepping into the room, "he set me up as well. He was gonna make me kill a whole load of people. I dun know whay but it was 'im whot did all this. If anyone is to blame, it's Cutler."

* * *

The new information seemed to shake Alex to her core. Annie could practically see the cogs turning in her head.

"Maybe, yea maybe it was Cutler who killed me family," she said still on the floor, "but it was Hal's fault too. It's all of your faults. You let him out. You let him talk to me and have a drink with me. He's the reason the wolves caught my scent. It's everyone's fault."

She didn't exactly sound angry just aggravated by just how little had been done to protect her. In actuality she did make a very good point. In the end Alex and her family had paid the price for Hal's attempt at humanity, for all their, Annie and Tom included, attempts.

Annie tried to sit up but found her arms were like jelly. She tried her best not to catch the attention of the other two as she pulled herself up using the leg of a chair. She didn't want to look pathetic after that awesome fight. When she finally had her top half up she rested her back against the wall.

"But we didn't mean ta," Tom argued, "but Cutler set this whole thin' up. And it's my fault too I shoulda, I shouldn've - my point is that if you're lookin' for someone to kill, if you're lookin' for someone oo needs ta be put out of 'is misery, it's Cutler."

Annie could hear Allison's influence in Tom's mini speech. And she supposed it worked because it won Alex over.

"Then that's what we'll do," Alex said looking over at Tom.

"Hold it," Annie said, "what do you two think you're doing. You can't just be making vendettas and plans like you're Beatrix Kiddo."

"Anneh-"

" _No_ , Tom," Annie said her voice getting shrill, "whoever this Cutler person is he's obviously dangerous."

"But he can't hurt me," Alex cut in, "you said so yerself."

"Yes, but he can hurt Tom," Annie said.

"Then he doesn't come," Alex said turning to face her.

Tom feared there would be another fight with the amount tension between the two women.

"Good," Annie replied curtly, "he stays and I go."

"What? Annie _you're_ going ta go?" Tom asked incredulous.

Annie hauled herself off of the ground trying not to show just how much effort it took. She managed to bite back a grunt as she finally got on her feet. For some reason she felt like some sort of relic with the way Alex and Tom looked at her.

"That's right. Like Alex said they can't hurt us and I may not have as much experience with vampires as you have," Annie replied, "but I've had my share."

"But it'll be dangerous," Tom said.

"Which is why I need you to stay here and take care of Hal and Eve."

"Okay now you're the one makin' plans, Annie," Alex cut in, "who says I need someone to come with me."

Annie looked from Alex then back to Tom.

"You don't," Annie said, "but it's the least I can do. After everything that's happened and what with everything that's about to happen and if Cutler is really you're unfinished business then I think there should be a friendly face there to see you off."

Annie reached out a hand offering the help the young woman up. Once again Alex felt an overwhelming wave of affection for the other ghost. Sure they had just beat the shit out of each other but that was okay. Alex was used to the rough and rowdy.

"Okay then," Alex said gripping Annie's hand in her own, "it's settled. We're gonna ta dust the grimy bastard who killed me and me family."

Annie's eyes connected with Tom's over Alex's head. She tried her best to express confidence but failed. Tom could tell she was uneasy about the whole thing. Something was bothering Annie. She wanted to say something or do something but there wasn't any time.

They were running out of time.

* * *

It was midday once Annie and Alex arrived at the warehouse that Tom had directed them to. Annie had made quite a fuss over leaving Tom alone with Eve and Annie. Alex was tempted the tell Annie not to go with her but Annie insisted. She set Tom up with a bottle of milk and kissed baby Eve goodbye and just like that they were off to finish some unfinished business.

"Did you ever see your family again?" Alex said, "After you know."

Annie looked startled by the question but answered in stride.

"Well they had the funeral in my old house, not Honolulu Heights obviously but my home back in Bristol," Annie replied.

"No I mean after all that," Alex said, "after everything died down and people forgot to care did you see them again?"

Annie stopped to think about the question. She hadn't actively searched for her family after the funeral. Honestly she had been too far in denial for the first couple months but then after that she didn't know what she'd never looked for them, never went to them.

"Yea," Annie replied, "just once more I saw my mum. She couldn't move on after finding out everything that happened what with the circumstances of my death. I helped her."

"And did she move on? Did she get over it?" Alex asked.

Annie thought long and hard about the answer to that question. She had never checked in with her mother after that. Things had happened so fast and before she knew it she was all the way in Barry in an old B&B with George, Mitchell and Nina. But her mum had said she would try. Carmen had made a promise to _try_ to move on and what else could Annie do but believe her?

"Yea I think she did."

Alex considered that answer. She would have liked her family to have moved on though not very quickly. I mean she deserved some mourning but she would have wanted them to get over it. She would have liked for her brothers to fall in love and get married if that was their fancy. Alex wanted to watch her father with grandbabies, not her own of course. Alex never wanted kids.

"And was that your unfinished business? Helpin' her out?"

"No, but I felt like it was," Annie said, "I wanted to go after that and I trusted some bad people who I thought would help me. I figured I was ready but I was wrong. I changed my mind at the last second. I wanted to stay"

"And that's why you're here?"

Annie didn't know how to answer. The story was longer than that it was far more terrifying and earth shattering. What she had saw beyond the Doors, what they did to her it would take ages to explain. But in essence, yes that was exactly why she was still there. Not because she had something to do or someone to look after. She was there because she wanted to be.

"I'm here because I want to be. I want to see Eve grow up, I want to meet the girl, god help her, that captures Tom's heart. And Hal, I want to be here when Hal _finally_ kicks his addiction and I want to be here even if he never does. I think once you turn down death as many times as I have you have to want be here. Doesn't make sense otherwise."

Alex listened closely to Annie's speech perhaps with the slightest bit of envy.

"I don't have that anymore," Alex said, "my family is dead. I'm dead and all I want is to move on. Who knows I might even get to see them again."

Annie could not reply, not at first. She didn't know what to say to that. A part of her, the part of her that was still young ignorant Annie trying to save the world with shoddy advice picked up from self-help books, wanted to convince her to stay. There would be new families and more people. They'd make you feel alive. They'd find you in the strangest of places in the weirdest of circumstances and that would be enough.

But death both physical and final was a personal thing. If Alex wanted to go through with killing Cutler and then move on then that was her own choice. And whatever Alex chose Annie would see her off.

"I hope you do too," Annie said patting Alex's shoulder.

There was a moment of silence as both women mentally prepared for what they were about to do. They were going to go into a nest of vampires to kill one vampire and despite the fact that they were already dead the thought still terrified both of them.

"Well then," Alex said, "let's get this show on the road."

* * *

They opted against rent-a-ghosting in. Alex was still shakey with her teleporting skills and neither of the women had ever actually been in the warehouse. Blundering in and tearing shit up, they decided, wasn't the best route. So they went for the very suave, very ninja-like sneak attack.

It was dark in the warehouse but oddly empty. Annie and Alex moved slowly and cautiously between the crates and large metal structures that created questionable shadows across the concrete floor.

They didn't speak. They didn't make a sound. Annie gripped a cross and a stake to her chest while Alex held her stake at the ready.

"I'm Cutler, Nick Cutler," they heard a man say just a little ways away.

Alex froze up in fear or in anger Annie couldn't tell. For a moment Annie was certain Alex would turn around and leave but she didn't. She snapped out of whatever daze she had been in and moved in the direction the voice had come from.

Annie and Alex had made a couple of plans before leaving Honolulu Heights. According to Tom, Cutler had claimed that the Old Ones were supposed to be coming and there was more than a good chance that they were already there. Though that had to be taken with a grain of salt considering that Tom had got that information from the very bastard they were trying to kill. However, if that was the case and the Old Ones had arrived then Annie would hold them off and Alex would go in for the kill.

There was more rambling from Cutler then the sound of something rolling like a cart. He was talking about giving someone the world like he was some lovesick puppy.

"Yes by presenting them with something worse," Cutler, Nick Cutler said rolling his TV along.

Annie and Alex found him. They peered at him from behind a stack of empty crates. At the sight of a table full of what seemed to be a bunch of vampire stereotypes Annie and Alex gave each other a knowing look.

"Worse than me?" one of the vampires said.

It was the one in the middle. He was pale, pale in the way that you could see blue veins snaking their way across his cheeks. It was like his skin was too thin like old worn down drapery. Annie couldn't take her eyes off of him. Alex was far too preoccupied with Cutler to notice him but Annie could smell the disaster on him. He was like Herrick, like Mitchell that day in the kitchen drunk on blood but far worse. He was barefaced evil.

"Well not worse of course but something less elegant perhaps," Cutler replied, "Werewolves."

"What was that you little fuck?"

Then Annie let out an ear-shattering scream as she jumped out from behind her hiding place behind the crates. She focused all her will towards the people at the table and pushed.

Most of the vampires went flying but not Mr. Snow. He stayed seated not even bothered but slightly amused. Then the werewolf came at her and she pushed him too. He flew across the room into some pipes but he wasn't down for good. Already he began to move but so did Alex.

Cutler, ever the survivalist was already scrambling towards the door that Annie and Alex had entered through. Alex was waiting for him.

"Do ya remember me you smarmy _dick_?" Alex screamed as she came face to face with her murderer, the man who had made her an orphan again, who had literally drained her of every bit of life she had in her.

Alex savored the look of surprise on his face. Her stomach turned with the most exquisite feeling of murderous pleasure as his expression morphed into one of horror as he realized what she had come to do. She let out scream, a battle cry and plunged her stake into his heart.

Alex watched as Cutler crumpled to the ground clawing at the stake at the center of his chest. He could feel his insides burn turning his skin to ash. He managed to get one word out before he turned to dust.

" _Bitch_."

"Same to you, _wanker_ ," Alex said spitting into the pile of ash that was once Cutler, Nick Cutler.

Already the vampires had fled unwilling to be the next to get staked by the rampant ghosts and feeling far too old for that shit. They didn't like getting their hands dirty, the pretentious bastards. All of them, even Mr. Snow had gone though he had left slowly. Rising from his seat and walking away all the while keeping his eyes on the gray ghost too preoccupied with his little hound dog to notice the cold dead eyes watching her every move.

When Annie noticed that Alex had reaped her revenge she stopped and Milo realized that everyone else had gone. He took Annie's momentary distraction as an opportunity to escape leaving only Alex, Annie and a pile of dust in the room.

"Is that it?" Annie asked breathing heavily "Is it over then?"

Alex seemed to hear her because she began to reply until something caught her eye. It was bright and though it was obscured by empty crates, steel cages and stacks of pipes Annie would know that light anywhere.

Sure enough on the other side of the room against the wall appeared a door. It was old and yellow. It was the kind of door you find on cheap apartments with leaky ceilings and dubious plumbing. The paint was chipping and the door handle looked like it was about to fall off but Alex could only stare with love at that door.

She knew that door.

Then for a moment she remembered Annie and glanced back at her friend. Annie only smiled in return urging her onward. A friendly face to you off, that's what Annie had promised.

Alex went to her door feeling of both dread and exuberance.

Annie was almost envious of her as she approached death with a look of bliss upon her face. Annie had never known that. Even when she had first seen her door she had been terrified. Then she had been dragged through to the other side and then the Doors had abandoned her all together.

"Annie," Alex called to her breaking the other woman from her thoughts, "thank you for _everythin'_."

Annie smiled as sincere as she ever could. Then nodded to her.

"Go on then," Annie said, "don't want to miss it."

Alex smiled back suddenly very sad to leave the dark skinned woman behind. She wanted to ask her to come with her but something told her that it wasn't allowed. It was taboo. So she just waved as she put her hand on the knob.

Then from the corner of her eye Annie saw a flash of pale skin and a black suit.

"NO!" she screamed but it was in vain.

Mr. Snow slammed the door, which was barely even ajar, closed and wrapped his arm around Alex's throat putting her in a chokehold. Upon the back of his hand was a symbol freshly carved into his skin.

Alex struggled and tried to rent-a-ghost but found she could not. He had her trapped.

"Annie," she choked out but that only made Mr. Snow grip her tighter.

Annie approached ready to raise hell but before she could reach the pair Mr. Snow took out a knife. It glinted in the light still radiating from Alex's door. In that flash of metallic illumination Annie could see that there were marks upon that as well similar to the one on Mr. Snow's hand. The thin twisted lines slithered in and over each other like snakes in a pit.

He raised his weapon high then plunged it into Alex's side. She shrieked at the action and squirmed wildly. Annie watched frozen in horror at the sight. That wasn't right, that was impossible mortal weapons couldn't hurt the dead.

But Alex continued to screech as Mr. Snow twisted the knife and slit her belly open. She gurgled and spat up her blood, real actual blood before she dropped to floor. Annie watched in horror as red spilled out onto the floor, pooling around the young woman. Then Alex began to flicker, her image slowly fading in and out of reality.

And then she was gone and her door with her.

Mr. Snow watched as little Annie gaped at his handy work. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"Hello, Annie," he greeted her flicking the blood from his blade, "I've been _dying_ to meet you."

* * *

Across town in a run down bed and breakfast a young werewolf watched the sun set humming to a little baby girl as she gurgled contentedly up at him. Tom had taken Annie's seat besides Hal's bed. The two women were taking longer than expected and that made Tom nervous.

So many thoughts ran through his head as he rocked baby Eve in his arms.

_I should have gone with them._

_I should have insisted._

_I should have protected them._

Tom couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was coming and it was coming for them.

Annie had instructed Tom to change Hal's bandages once every ten minutes or so because the bleeding was pretty bad and his blood wasn't congealing or something like that. She had told him to use whatever fabric he could find _except_ the good sheets. Those had belonged to Nina and Annie would not allow them to be ruined. Frankly Hal would not have stood for it either. He had always spent and extra amount of time and effort to keep those sheets immaculate. Hal had always appreciated fine linen.

And Tom had done as Annie told him at least he had tried but when he went to remove the old and bloody bandages he found that the wounds had stopped bleeding and for the most part closed. He applied new bandages but found that they remained clean and white.

"An' I dun see tha point in rippin' up more sheets, do you, lil love?" Tom said to the little girl, a habit he had picked up from Annie, "I know Annie said tha I should change em but Hal seems to be doin' just fine."

Tom looked at his bed ridden friend. It hurt to know that he had been the one to put Hal into that state. If Tom wasn't so careless, if he wasn't so goddamn gullible then all of this would have never happened. Tom couldn't help but think that they would have all been better off without him around to muck things up.

"Dun worry, Eve," Tom said quietly to the little girl in his arms, " Annie will be back any time now and then we'll all be together. Then we'll be safe."

Eve replied with a hum of what sounded like agreement and then a low whine.

"Nah don worry about Uncle Hal," Tom replied as though she had spoken back, "he's pretty strong your Uncle Hal. 'Sides he's me best mate and he wouldn't just leave me like this nor you or Annie."

At that moment there was a loud gasp. It scared Tom nearly to death. Hal shot up into a seated position his eyes pitch black and fangs out. His hand went immediately to his chest, which was bare and bandaged. He ripped the strips of sheet off to reveal only thin discolored lines that ran across his torso.

His head snapped to Tom who sat shocked and astonished.

"Where is she?" he said urgently, "Where's Annie?"

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well there you go kiddies. This story is winding down and we're almost to the end of this part in the series. There will be a sequel though I'm not sure what its called yet. 
> 
> Next Chapter: The Beginning of the End
> 
> Loved it? Hated it? Want to burn me at the stake? Tell me in reviews :D


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